CB: Parents, students: "We deserve better"

Wednesday

Feb 29, 2012 at 12:01 AMFeb 29, 2012 at 11:30 AM

By Christina KristoficStaff Writer

More than 300 teachers, parents and students crowded into the Central Bucks school board meeting room Tuesday night. A couple hundred more waited in the lobby, the hallway and outside in the parking lot.

And they all wanted the same thing — for the school board to reverse its decision to change the middle school schedule.

“When I look at this document, it claims the decision is not based on economics or performance on tests. If that’s the case, why are we even here?” asked Doylestown Township resident Anthony Recupero, as he waved a printed copy of a question-and-answer form the school district made to explain the middle school changes. “This document does not contain a problem statement identifying a problem we are trying to resolve... We have a great opportunity here. We have a great opportunity to address the situation — if there is one — and improve it.”

Recupero asked, “What’s the problem?”

He — and the rest of the audience — didn’t get an answer.

Instead, they got, as one audience member said, “dismissed” by the school board.

School board president Paul Faulkner said Central Bucks administrators came up with the plan to change the middle school schedule from one in which students take seven 46-minute classes each day to one in which students take six 56-minute classes each day. He said, “These folks and their peers have made Central Bucks the outstanding district that it is. I’m not going to suggest that they don’t know more than we do... They have our faith and trust. And I stand by my vote.”

Faulkner asked the other eight school board members if they wanted to change their votes on the schedule change. They remained silent.

Faulkner said he thought Nancy Silvious, the assistant superintendent for secondary education, did a “great job” explaining the middle school schedule change. Silvious said the goal of the change is to give students more time in their core subjects — math, science, English, reading and history — and more choices in their “specials” (electives).

The students currently are required to take technology education, family and consumer sciences, art, music and physical education as electives. The new schedule would allow students to opt out of technology education, family and consumer sciences and physical education, so they can take more art or music.

One parent said the current system is an “and” system that gives students the opportunity to try a little of everything, and the new system will be an “or” system that will force students to choose what they want to try and miss some opportunities. She and many others said students aren’t able to make those decisions when they’re only 11 or 12 years old.

Several middle and high school students said they didn’t want to take music classes in middle school, but they were forced to — and now they’re grateful for it because they have discovered that they love music. They said music has taught them discipline and logic. They said it has taught them how to work in groups.

Jeannine Fielding, the mother of a student at Central Bucks South High School and a student at Unami Middle School, said her son had a “very severe physical tic” when he entered middle school and no one knew what to do about it. She said she just hoped it would work itself out.

“It did work its way out — through the middle school program at Unami Middle School,” she said. Fielding said she wouldn’t have known music would help her son if he hadn’t been required to take it in seventh grade.

Parents and students argued over and over for keeping all of the “specials” and not making students choose.

“My daughter has been looking forward to the variety and autonomy provided by the middle school schedule,” said Doylestown resident Mary Bingler. “My daughter likes art, but she also likes to sing. She couldn’t care less about PE, but that doesn’t mean she should be off the hook. That’s probably all the more reason she should be required to take it.”

Several parents said they knew their children won't sign up for physical education classes unless it's a requirement. And they want it to remain a requirement.

Physical education teacher Mike Schaefer said data from school nurses show that roughly 30 percent of students in the Central Bucks School District have "a serious health issue." He said the middle school schedule cuts the amount of time kids spend in physical education by one-third.

Kids need more gym class, not less, Schaefer said.

"We are all made to move... You're more focused, more alert, more alive when you have regular physical activity," Schaefer said. He said children with attention deficity disorder, weight problems, diabetes and other health concerns struggle to learn; physical education helps relieve those struggles.

"If we're truly gonna lead the way, we need to look at this more closely," Schaefer said.

Some parents and students decried the school district's decision to cut the computer applications program from the middle schools.

"Technology has created and taken away jobs. Technology has changed the way we practice medicine, practice law, fix cars, construct cars," said Warrington resident Gerald Streets. "How it kind of got to the point where maybe you all know something the rest of the world doesn't just boggles my mind."

Parents said they wanted a well-rounded education for their children. Their children said they wanted the same.

Central Bucks South High School student Deanna Deacon said she entered middle school wanting to be a police officer or lawyer and the electives she took showed her what she really wants to do. She said, "Middle school is supposed to be three years when you're searching and striving to find who you are."

Two Tohickon Middle School students presented the school board with a petition signed by more than 400 of their classmates that opposed the middle school schedule changes. Students at other schools said they surveyed their classmates and found more than 80 percent of those they surveyed opposed the schedule change.

More than 200 people have signed a petition posted on Change.org.

“We elected you to represent us, but you sit here tonight representing only the administration,” said Doylestown Township resident Beth Darcy. “We deserve better.”

Christina Kristofic: 215-345-3079;

email, ckristofic@phillyburbs.com;

Twitter, @CKristofic

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